I receive many emails each week asking about the
health
effects of sugarless gum, so I decided to dedicate
July's Healthy
Newsletter to 'gum.' Even if you don't chew gum,
it is interesting
to learn about America's multi-billion dollar
need to chew. You'll
be surprised at what's behind chewing gum - especially
sugarless
gums.

I have also added a new section to The Healthy
Newsletter - a
Monthly Healthy Recipe. If you have a healthy
recipe you want
to share, please send it in.

Wishing you the best.

To your health!
Dr. Janet Starr Hull, Ph.D., CN

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IN THIS ISSUE
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People have enjoyed chewing gum-like substances
in many
lands for centuries. Most of the original gum
materials were
merely thickened resin and latex from certain
trees. Others
were various sweet grasses, leaves, grains and
waxes.

For centuries the ancient Greeks chewed mastic
gum or
mastiche pronounced "mas-tee-ka". This
is resin from the bark
of the mastic tree, a shrub-like tree found mainly
in Greece
and Turkey. Grecian women favored mastic gum to
clean their
teeth and sweeten their breath.

American colonists learned from the Indians of
New England
how to chew the gum-like resin that formed on
spruce trees
when the bark was cut. Lumps of spruce gum were
sold in the
eastern United States during the early 1800s,
making it the first
commercial 'chewing gum' in America. Around 1850,
sweetened
paraffin wax became popular and eventually surpassed
spruce
gum in popularity.

After being defeated by Texas in 1845, Mexican
General Santa
Anna was exiled to New York. Like many of his
countrymen,
Santa Anna chewed chicle. One day he introduced
chicle to New
York inventor Thomas Adams, who began experimenting
with it
as a possible substitute for rubber. Adams tried
to make toys,
masks, and rain boots out of chicle, but every
experiment failed.

Sitting in his workshop one day, tired and discouraged,
he
popped a piece of surplus stock into his mouth.
Chewing away,
the idea suddenly hit him to add flavoring to
the chicle. Shortly,
he opened the world's first chewing gum factory.
Gum made
with chicle and similar latexes soon won favor
over spruce gum
and paraffin gum. It made a smooth, springy, satisfying
chew
that the others lacked, and it held its flavor
longer. By the early
1900s, with improved methods of manufacturing,
packaging and
marketing, modern chewing gum was well on its
way to its
current popularity.

Why do humans like to 'chew' so much? Quite literally,
say
psychologists, the process begins in infancy from
suckling for
milk to the soothing pacifier. Older children
like to chew on blades
of grass and straw, even pencils and rubber bands
at school.

Chewers say gum helps clean their teeth. They
also like the way
it freshens their breath. And, of course, gum
is fun to chew, it
tastes good, and contains only a few calories
for the weight
conscious. Chewing is a natural and healthy exercise
for
strengthening the jaw and stimulating circulation
to the gums.
Chewing relaxes and eases tension, can help you
stay alert and
awake, moistens the mouth which stimulates digestion,
helps
some people concentrate, helps resist the urge
to smoke,
reduces ear discomfort when flying, satisfies
snack cravings,
and cleans your teeth after meals.

The urge to chew was probably as strong in prehistoric
man
as it is today. Primitive human beings chewed
on grass, berries
and trees. The first records that mention 'chewing'
date from
early civilizations in both the Eastern and Western
cultures.
Most indigenous people today chew on bark and
tree rubbers
to exercise their jaws and keep their teeth healthy.

In Greece and the Middle East, people have chewed
mastic gum
for many centuries. Dioscorides, a Greek medicine
man,
pioneered the use of powdered mastiche as medicine
around
50 A.D. Mastiche has been used for this purpose
on the island
of Chios ever since.

In Central America, the ancient Mayans, like
the ancient Greeks,
chewed resin from trees. This resin was the first
to be called
chicle and it formed the basis for our story about
modern
chewing gum.

In 1879, gum was extracted from the balsam tree
and flavored
with powdered sugar. At this time, Dr. Edward
E. Beeman
turned his medical skills toward the manufacturing
of a pepsin
powder as an aid to digestion. One day his bookkeeper,
Nellie
Horton, suggested that he put the pepsin into
gum "since so
many people buy pepsin for digestion and gum for
no reason at
all." So, he blended his pepsin compound
with chicle. He then
took the picture of a pig that had graced the
bottles of his pepsin
compound, and put it on the wrapper of his new
gum, stating:
"With pepsin, you can eat like a pig."
It sold well, but it did even
better after a financier reorganized the Beeman
Company and
replaced the pig on the wrapper with Dr. Beeman's
bearded face.

The popular peppermint flavor arrived on the
gum scene around
1880 by William J. White, a popcorn salesman from
Cleveland,
Ohio. A neighboring grocer had received a barrel
of chicle instead
of the ordered barrel of nuts and gave it to White,
who began
experimenting with it in his home. He soon discovered
how to
solve the problem of how to keep flavor in gum.
Since chicle
itself would not absorb flavors, White turned
his focus to sugar,
which would absorb flavors. He found that by combining
flavors
with corn syrup, any flavor could be obtained.
The syrup blended
instantly with chicle.

White decided on his favorite peppermint flavor.
His gum,
eventually named Yucatan, became a smash hit.
(http://www.pfizer.com/mn_copyright.html) Cinnamon,
spearmint
and peppermint are among the most popular flavors
of chewing
gum today.

This rediscovery of what the Mayans had known
over one
thousand years earlier revolutionized the manufacturing
of chewing gum.

Other trees also contribute or have contributed
their latex to
the chewing gum industry. Some of the latex used
is leche,
caspi and sorva, found in the Amazon Valley; nispero
and tunu,
from Central America; and jelutong, found in
Indonesia, Malaya, and British Borneo. Refined
pine tree resins
from our own Southeast coastal states have also
been used as
gum ingredients.

Man-made resins and waxes are used to greater
degrees today
as the search continues for an even more enjoyable
chew. Chicle
is still produced commercially from the red and
white Sapodilla
trees that grow in the rain forests of Central
and South America.
These trees, concentrated most heavily in the
Yucatan Peninsula,
frequently reach heights of 100 feet or more,
and develop with
great hardness and density. The Sapodillas (Achras
Sapota) are
not tapped for their latex until they are at least
20 to 25 years old.
Each tapping, made with a series of cross cuts
leading to a center
channel in the form of a herringbone, yields only
2 1/2 pounds of
gum over a period of six hours. Trees are tapped
only once every
three to four years.

Although chicle and other natural gums are still
utilized by the
chewing gum industry, most modern gums are made
from man-
made materials and contain corn syrup, sugar,
chemical sugar
substitutes, artificial food colorings and flavoring
agents added to
the gum base in the gum-making process.

The problem with modern-day chewing gum is that
gum is not
what it used to be - or should be. Gum is now
sated with unhealthy
man-made chemicals and is shaped so small, it
does little to no
good exercising the jaw. Modernized chewing gum
is no longer the
healthy answer for human's instinctive need to
chew, and with the
addition of aspartame and other chemical sugar
substitutes saturating
both regular and sugar-free gums, gum today can
be hazardous to
your health. Search for an original gum to chew
instead of the
assembly-line variety. Browse the Internet, health
food stores and
coops for natural gums available.

In making chewing gum, the Wrigley Company strives
for three
characteristics:
1. a smooth, even chew
2. a delicious, long-lasting flavor
3. dependable, uniform quality

STEP ONE: QUALITY ASSURANCE
All ingredients and wrapping materials are inspected
when they
arrive at the factories. Before any shipment is
accepted, samples
are taken and tested in modern quality assurance
laboratories.

STEP TWO: GRINDING
Manufacturing takes place in spotless air-conditioned
rooms and
is closely monitored to meet the company's high
standards of
quality. The process begins with the grinding
of base materials.

STEP THREE: FILTERING
Next, the base is melted and purified through
high-speed centrifuges
and filter machines.
Then, still hot, the base goes to the mixers,
each of which can hold
up to one ton of ingredients.

STEP FOUR: MIXING
After the gum base is poured into the mixer, sweeteners
and flavors
are added at just the right moment and in just
the right amounts.
These ingredients are then mixed slowly for the
exact amount of
time required by the formula. At this point, the
gum looks like stiff
bread dough.

STEP FIVE: ROLLING
From the mixers, the gum is sent through a series
of rollers that
form it into a thin, wide ribbon. Each pair of
rollers is set closer
together than the previous pair, gradually reducing
the thickness
of the gum. A light coating of finely powdered
sugar or chemical
sugar substitute is added to keep the gum from
sticking and to
enhance the flavor.

STEP SIX: SCORING
The continuous ribbon of gum is then scored in
a pattern of single
sticks.

STEP SEVEN: CONDITIONING
The gum is allowed to cool. The temperature and
humidity are
carefully controlled to make sure the finished
gum will stay fresh on
store shelves for an extended period of time.

STEP EIGHT: WRAPPING
The packaging materials are vital in protecting
the freshness of
Wrigley's gum. In one continuous process, the
wrapping machine
receives and wraps the sticks, applies the outer
wrapper, and seals
the ends of each package. Most of the wrapping
machines were
designed and built by Wrigley engineers and machinists,
and each is
made up of approximately 6,000 moving parts.

STEP NINE: PACKING
The packages are automatically packed into boxes
or clear plastic
bags that move on conveyor belts for final inspection.
Boxes are
wrapped with a clear covering and both boxes and
bags are packed
into shipping cases. Wrigley's gum is then shipped
to hundreds of
thousands of stores and other retail outlets all
over the world.

Thanks to the Wrigley Company for these details.
(http://www.wrigley.com/wrigley/about/about_story_plant.asp)

Xylitol is a naturally occurring sweetener that
is found in raspberries,
strawberries, and plums, corn, endive, and mushrooms.
The human
body produces xylitol in its daily metabolic processes.
Xylitol is
manufactured by extracting xylan from birch wood
or corn cobs, and
reacting it with water to produce xylose or "wood
sugar." Hydrogen
(H2) is then added to make 'Xylitol.'

Where and when was xylitol discovered?

The wood sugar xylose was first hydrogenated
to produce xylitol in
1891 by the German chemist Emil Fischer. Xylitol
has been used since
the 1960s in the Soviet Union, Germany, Switzerland
and Japan as the
preferred sweetener for diabetics. Xylitol is
also used intravenously for
patients with impaired glucose tolerance, i.e.
for trauma, burns, and in
diabetic and insulin resistance. Xylitol's dental
benefits were first
studied in Finland. In the early 1970s, researchers
at Turku University
showed xylitol could prevent dental caries.

How is Xylitol different than other sweeteners?

Xylitol is a "sugar alcohol." Chemically,
sucrose (sugar), fructose,
sorbitol and glucose all have six carbon atoms
in their molecules.
Xylitol has five carbon atoms in its molecule.
Six carbon molecules can
be easily digested by oral bacteria but a five-carbon
molecule has
strong chemical bonds that are very difficult
for bacteria to digest. So
when xylitol is consumed, these bacteria populations
starve out and
decline. This is one way xylitol helps prevent
plaque and cavities and
why it is a better choice for sugarless gums.

Xylitol has the same sweetness as sugar but with
40% less calories.
Xylitol's functional properties are similar to
sugar; it dissolves slower at
cold temperatures but faster than sugar above
86 degrees F. (http://www.xylipro.com/faq.html)

So, is xylitol a better sugar-free choice for
a sweetener, especially in
chewing gum? Probably, but all in all, you are
better off with the real
thing - using no sugar or natural unprocessed
sugar whenever possible.
Especially for children.

* During WWII, U.S. military personnel spread
the popularity
of chewing gum by trading it and giving it as
gifts to people in
Europe, Africa, Asia, and around the world.

* Why is bubble gum pink? The color of the first
successful
bubble gum was pink because it was the only color
the inventor
had left. The color "stuck" and today
bubble gum is still predominantly
pink.

* Can you really remove gum from your hair with
peanut butter?
It has been proven that if you knead a small amount
of peanut butter
between your fingers and the gum, the gum will
break apart enough
to remove it.

* North American kids spend approximately half
a billion dollars on
bubble gum every year.

* UK gives green light for new sweetener. The
UK Food Standards
Agency (FSA) announced this week new regulations
giving a two-year
temporary national authorization to market a new
sweetener - 'salt of
aspartame-acesulfame' - a chemical combination
of two already
permitted sweeteners, aspartame and acesulfame
K at an equivalent
mixture of 1:1.

The FSA also revealed that parallel regulations
have been prepared
in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

-----------------------------------------------------------------Q AND A WITH DR. JANET
STARR HULL
-----------------------------------------------------------------

To: jshull@sweetpoison.com
Subject: 15 sticks a day

Q: I quit smoking a little over 2 years ago.
I switched my habit to
chewing gum. I bought "Orbit" gum which
has in my view a lot of
aspartame in it. I was chewing about 15 pieces
a day. About a month
ago I thought I was loosing my mind. I have never
been so scared
in my life. I am still struggling to get back
to being my old self.

My life became flipped upside down. I have always
been a happy
person, enjoyed life, and loved my career. I could
not understand
what was happening to me. I woke up and knew something
was wrong
with me. I felt like I was in a cloud, my right
eye was getting blurry,
with floaters. I felt so depressed, like I did
not exist. My dreams of life
were gone, nothing seemed real. I went to work,
and felt like screaming
and crying all at the same time. What the heck
was going on with me???
I went home and started to cry. My wife is very
understanding,
Thank God.

I went to bed and stayed there for two days.
That same day,
I had just chewed four pieces of sugarless gum.
I had been
chewing it for the last 1.5 to 2 years. Everyday,
about 15 pieces.
Terrible habit I had created. Glad to be off smoking
cigarettes, but
now I had created the habit of chewing gum. I
prayed to God to
help me. I read the ingredients on the gum and
found the word
aspartame. I did an Internet search on it and
was surprised by what
I saw. Could this be what was happening to me?
It had to be. How
could I go from being sane to feeling like I was
loosing my mind?
I have not had any aspartame since that day a
month ago; I am
hoping that the 60 days will help get it out of
my body. I just want
to get back to my normal state of mind. Today
I feel, 65% better.

Janet, will this go away? I am praying that it
does. I feel so alone on
this, but talking to you has helped me find hope.
I look forward to
reading all of your book. I am taking a men's
one a day vitamin. I
hope that helps to replenish what was damaged
in my body. The last
two days, I felt incredibly better, almost to
my old self. Thanks for your
help on the matter, and God bless you Janet. Any
info would be greatly
appreciated.

A: Scary, isn't it? Aspartame is very toxic,
and it affects people
differently, but you seem to have had a somewhat
common reaction.
Slowly chewing the poison day after day caught
up with you. I am
sorry you are having adverse effects, but this
should get better with time.
I suggest getting on a good vitamin routine to
restore whatever nutrients
the aspartame by-products destroyed. A detox program
and liver cleanse
would be a good idea, too.

Removing the toxin, cleaning the body, and replacing
the damage done
is the best way to return to your normal state
of health. You might enjoy
both of my books, as they go into fine detail
on aspartame and how to
recover from it.

So glad you discovered what was making you ill.
Remember, aspartame
was discovered in the 1960s as an ulcer medication.
All this time, you've
been chewing on medicine for ulcers! No wonder
you felt bad ...

Wishing you the best.

---------

To: jshull@sweetpoison.com
Subject: mom warned me

Q. I am so glad to read your article about the
dangers of aspartame. My
mom warned me about not using aspartame but I
didn't really believe until
I read your site. I'm now convinced because it
all makes sense now. I'm
young but have been chewing aspartame gum for
years, and lately I've
experienced knee joint problems, dizziness, loss
of balance & frequent
headaches, moodiness, feeling sick.

I never thought it could be traced to aspartame!
Who would guess the
stores could sell such "sweet poison"
to people & kids! Thanks for your
site to educate us all.

** Is there a safe mint-CANDY & GUM in the
market that I can still
consume? I like it for fresh breath! The only
gum I could find without
aspartame is DENTYNE CINNIMON (its got sugar,
mannitol, sobitol, etc...
I don't know if these sweeteners are safe either).
I chew about 10 sticks
a day. Most mint candies have aspartame too.

A: These are all side effects of aspartame. Ugh.
You didn't stop a moment
too soon. Check all labels, though, as aspartame
is in gums, mints, all
kinds of foods that are not labeled sugar-free
like DoubleMint gum.

Dentyne is about the only safe gum anymore at
'general' stores. What
a racket, huh? For the sake of your teeth, I'd
try to cut back on so much
gum , though. Try some tea tree toothpicks to
suck on from the health
food store. They really freshen your mouth. Also,
there are all-natural
gums from health food stores that taste fine.

Thank you for getting off the stuff. Young people
have so much ahead
of them, and it's a shame to start battling illness
at such a young age.
Good for you. Be cautious from now on as foods
aren't getting better,
only more polluted.

Q: A few weeks ago, I started chewing Orbit gum
which has
aspartame in it. Shortly afterwards I began to
have abdominal pain,
diarrhea, a sense of nausea and rare headaches.
I wondered if it
was the gum. I have stopped chewing it and started
to feel better.
I still don't know if this is exactly it, so I
did a web search and found
your site. Hmm...Could be it, huh? I am almost
symptom free since I
stopped chewing the gum.
Thanks for your informative web site. I will share
the news.

A: You are the third person today to email me
about Orbit gum. You
are not alone!!

Aspartame was discovered in the 1960s as an ulcer
medication. All
this time, you've been chewing a medicine for
ulcers. Many people get
stomach cramping and diarrhea because of this.
Glad you put two and
two together and are already feeling better.

Productos Real Has Recalled "Real Guacamole"
Reason: Because it has the potential to be contaminated
with
Listeria monocytogenes.
Distribution: West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
http://www.safetyalerts.com/recall/f/02.2/f0002744.htm

Fisher-Price Has Recalled Crib Mobile Toys
Reason: If batteries used in the mobile leak,
the caustic liquid
can seep out of the battery compartment.
Distribution: Nationwide.
http://www.safetyalerts.com/recall/p/02/p0013124.htm

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